ABSTRACT
The Aberdeen Evening Gazette bears the following deserved testimony to Mrs. Weldon's talents and perseverance :-
That very knotty and puzzling subject, namely, the reform of the Lunacy Laws, which has already wearied and worn out several Parliamentary Comm:iJ;sions and Committees, is at last likely to be practically dealt with through the agency of a woman, and that, too, of a woman who has, in some quarters, been held up to us as a laughing stock. The comic papers have made merry over her appearances in the law-courts. She has also afiorded no end of amusement to the legal.- fraternity generally, by her b9ld and courageous bearing in the presence of the dread majesty of the law even in its highest places'; but she has evidently already begun to make these gentlemen laugh on the wrong side of their mouths. They are beginning to Rh ow indications of genuine alarm that their rights and privileges are being invaded, and they are quietly, but earnestly, seeking to promote legislation that will put an end t-0 pleading in person. Unfortunately for themselves they have awoke from their dumbers of security a little too late. Mrs. \Veldon's pleading in person has been successful far beyond their expectations, and w bat is still worse for them, Mrs. Weldon bas been able to expose how justice is very often handicapped in the lower courts by expensive and tedious forms of process, and how a litigant has far more chance of a fair and impartial hearing in the free and open atmosphere of the Court of Appeal, where the judges can dissociate themselves from precedents and previous rulings and apply with greater freedom the ordinary, and, as a rule, juster principles of common-sense. Mrs. Weldon bas not only shown herself fit to cope single-handed with able lawyers, but she has also shown that she is able to pierce her way through the net-work of protection which encircles the Law Courts in the interests of the great army of counsels, pleaders, solicitors, and barristers. In the matter of pl~ad ing in person she bas heen a long way more successful than Mr. Bradlaugh, but even he bas found a more impartial hearing in the higher courts of appeal. But it is in connection with the reform of the Lunacy Laws that Mrs. "'\Veldon's influence in the meantime is likely to bear fruit. AB our readers are aware she has been successful up to this point in her action against Dr. Forbes Winslow, and there seems no good reason why she should not be successful
in the end. If she is mad, as it was endeavoured to make her out to be, verily there never was a case of more method in madness. She bas not feared to face the open, and at times merciless scrutiny of the law Courts for over six years in her efforts to prove her sanity, and beyond exhibiting a somewhat erratic and impetuous disposition, she has given abundant evidence that she is possessed of a wonderful amount of tact and energy, and what is above all things, the characteristic of sane individuals, an unwavering determination, and coherency of purpose to attain her ends. For more than forty years, as Dr. -Winslow informs us, the pre8ent lunacy laws have been in operation, and if they are faulty, he claims that the blame should fall on those who allow them to continue to exist, and not on those who have to work under them. Nothing, as he says, has been done beyond merely drawing attention to the condition of the law, but even he is compelled to admit that, after what has happened in connection with the Weldon case, the time has come when the law should be so amended as that both the public and medical profession alike will be protected from the perpetration of crimes and injustice by the friends and relatives of eocalied insane persons."-Evening Gazette, Aberdeen.
